Money Shot: A Journey Into Porn And Censorship by Jeff Sparrow

Money Shot is one of the most thought-provoking, intelligent and entertaining non-fiction books I’ve read in a long time.

Jeff Sparrow, editor of Overland and co-author of Radical Melbourne, has quite literally taken a journey into porn and censorship in Australia. As well as interviewing commentators on all sides of the debate, Sparrow visits a sex cinema, attends Sexpo, completes a crash course in censorship and heads up north to try and understand how the issues have manifested themselves as a result of the Northern Territory Intervention.

He critically looks at the argument that the lucrative pornography market of today is a positive outcome of the sexual revolution, and his thoughts here offer fascinating insight into the neoliberal transformation of our society more generally.

Sparrow reminds us that for the sexual revolutionaries of yesteryear, sexuality was not circumscribed by consumption. And after a couple of trips to Sexpo he is left in no doubt about the increasing marketisation of sexuality and the male orientation of the industry.

The book left me curious about how the immense popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey, which has been labelled by some as pornography for women but has a chauvinistic male lead, might fit in to the debate (admittedly not curious enough to actually read the book). There are no easy answers in Money Shot and the debate is far from one sided so I would urge anyone, regardless of their standpoint on these issues, to read this insightful and comprehensive analysis.

Kara Nicholson is currently completing a masters in environmental studies and spends her time reading novels to avoid doing any of the actual study part. Her favourite book of all time is George Eliot’s Middlemarch and she urges anyone who hasn’t to read it to do so immediately.